This invention generally relates to a didactic device or educational teaching aid for providing a learning experience and/or entertainment in which an image processing system is combined with a speech synthesis system in a manner directed toward improvement of the user's penmanship and drawing skills. More particularly, the didactic device includes a drawing surface on which a user executes selected instructions, which may be provided verbally by electronic speech synthesis or visually via a display or both, by drawing indicia on the drawing surface. The drawn indicia is viewed by an imager, compared with data signatures stored in a memory for verification purposes based upon the selected instructions, and vocally and visually critiqued via the speed synthesis system and the display.
Heretofore, educational teaching aids have included speech synthesizer systems therein to enable the teaching aid to audibilize words, phrases and sentences in a human language in providing a learning experience, such as the talking learning aid disclosed in pending U.S. application Ser. No. 901,393 filed Apr. 28, 1978, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,209,836 issued June 24, 1980.
Although such didactic devices have been designed for providing a learning experience in which speech synthesis is an important aspect, more unique forms of educational training aids are constantly being sought to further enhance learning experiences available for various purposes to individuals having diverse formal education backgrounds and intelligence skills ranging from severely limited to exceptional.
Another aspect with which the present invention is concerned involves optical character recognition or verification, wherein the reading of characters on documents is accomplished opto-electronically. Generally, optical character recognition apparatuses function by opto-electronically scanning a character in a rectangular pattern of lines so as to produce quantized binary electronic signals corresponding to the pattern of the character being scanned. The quantized character pattern is stored in a memory and compared on a bit-by-bit basis with character patterns of standard characters such that the unknown character which is scanned is defined as corresponding to the standard character producing the closest similarity thereto.
The combination of an optical character recognition system with a voice annunicator system responsive thereto to produce voice messages corresponding to the message being optically scanned is generally known. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,641,496 Slavin issued Feb. 8, 1972.
While the foregoing aspects with which the present invention is involved are generally known, prior to the conception of the didactic device disclosed and claimed in pending U.S. application, Ser. No. 153,342 filed May 27, 1980, a useful learning aid combining the features of optical character recognition or verification and audible speed reflective of comprehension of what has been seen has not been developed.